Criminal charges were laid before the Court of Québec yesterday against Richard Dionne and Richard Labelle, who are accused of conspiring in 2021 to rig bids on public road and culvert work on Highway 50 (since renamed Guy‑Lafleur) in the region of Gatineau in Québec.
Evidence gathered in the course of a Competition Bureau investigation suggests that the individuals conspired to undermine the competitive process by agreeing to rig bids submitted in response to a call for tenders from the ministère des Transports du Québec.
The charges were laid under the bid-rigging provisions of the Competition Act and the conspiracy provisions of the Criminal Code. At the time of the alleged conspiracy, Richard Dionne was General Manager of Sales for Québec and Ontario for the Coco Asphalt division of Coco Paving Inc., and Richard Labelle was the Sales Manager for Québec for Coco Asphalt.
